The complete mitochondrial genome of the wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) and phylogenetic analyses within Arctiinae

We report the assembly and annotation of the complete mitochondrial genome of the warningly-coloured wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) and investigate its phylogenetic position within Arctiinae. The A.plantaginis mitogenome is 15,479 bp long with 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and an A + T-rich region (D-loop). The phylogenetic analyses based on 13 protein-coding genes showed A.plantaginis clustering within a clade of species with white wings and yellow or red bodies. This result can be useful in understanding the evolution of coloration in Arctiid moths.Peer reviewe

Wavelength calibration of the JWST-MIRI medium resolution spectrometer

We present the wavelength and spectral resolution characterisation of the Integral Field Unit (IFU) Medium Resolution Spectrometer for the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), to fly onboard the James Webb Space Telescope in 2014. We use data collected using the Verification Model of the instrument and develop an empirical method to calibrate properties such as wavelength range and resolving power in a portion of the spectrometer's full spectral range (5-28 microns). We test our results against optical models to verify the system requirements and combine them with a study of the fringing pattern in the instrument's detector to provide a more accurate calibration. We show that MIRI's IFU spectrometer will be able to produce spectra with a resolving power above R=2800 in the wavelength range 6.46-7.70 microns, and that the unresolved spectral lines are well fitted by a Gaussian profile.Comment: 12 pages, submitted to SPIE Proceedings vol. 7731, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wav

Infrared Emission by Dust Around lambda Bootis Stars: Debris Disks or Thermally Emitting Nebulae?

We present a model that describes stellar infrared excesses due to heating of the interstellar (IS) dust by a hot star passing through a diffuse IS cloud. This model is applied to six lambda Bootis stars with infrared excesses. Plausible values for the IS medium (ISM) density and relative velocity between the cloud and the star yield fits to the excess emission. This result is consistent with the diffusion/accretion hypothesis that lambda Bootis stars (A- to F-type stars with large underabundances of Fe-peak elements) owe their characteristics to interactions with the ISM. This proposal invokes radiation pressure from the star to repel the IS dust and excavate a paraboloidal dust cavity in the IS cloud, while the metal-poor gas is accreted onto the stellar photosphere. However, the measurements of the infrared excesses can also be fit by planetary debris disk models. A more detailed consideration of the conditions to produce lambda Bootis characteristics indicates that the majority of infrared-excess stars within the Local Bubble probably have debris disks. Nevertheless, more distant stars may often have excesses due to heating of interstellar material such as in our model.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted by ApJ, emulateap

A Call to Redefine Historical Scholarship in the Digital Turn

This is a collaboratively-written call for the American Historical Association to appoint a task force to survey the profession as to the place of digital historical scholarship in promotion and tenure and graduate student training and to recommend standards and guidelines for the profession to follow. This document is a product of many of the exciting changes discussed below. It began at a session atTHATCamp AHA 2012 that included graduate students, tenured and non-tenured faculty, and librarians. These participants and others continued their conversations at the physical conference and afterwards on the web. Additional signatures and edits in the Google Doc were solicited via Twitter, and through posts on Jason’s blog and by Alex on GradHacker. The letter was then submitted to the American Historical Association’s Research Division on January 26, 2012. On June 2, 2012 the AHA announced the establishment of a Task Force on Digital Scholarship

Linking Anomalous Behaviour with Stellar Properties: An Unsupervised Exploration of TESS Light Curves

With the upcoming plethora of astronomical time-domain datasets and surveys, anomaly detection as a way to discover new types of variable stars and transients has inspired a new wave of research. Yet, the fundamental definition of what constitutes an anomaly and how this depends on the overall properties of the population of light curves studied remains a discussed issue. Building on a previous study focused on Kepler light curves, we present an analysis that uses the Unsupervised Random Forest to search for anomalies in TESS light curves. We provide a catalogue of anomalous light curves, classify them according to their variability characteristics and associate their anomalous nature to any particular evolutionary stage or astrophysical configuration. For anomalies belonging to known classes (e.g. eclipsing binaries), we have investigated which physical parameters drive the anomaly score. We find a combination of unclassified anomalies and objects of a known class with outlying physical configurations, such as rapid pulsators, deep eclipsing binaries of long periods, and irregular light curves due to obscuration in YSOs. Remarkably, we find that the set of anomalous types differ between the Kepler and TESS datasets, indicating that the overall properties of the parent population are an important driver of anomalous behaviour.Comment: 23 pages, 26 figures. Submitted to MNRA

Exotic tree plantations and avian conservation in northern Iberia: a view from a nest–box monitoring study

Plantaciones de árboles exóticos y conservación de la avifauna en el norte de la península ibérica: perspectiva de un estudio de seguimiento de cajas nido La expansión de plantaciones de árboles exóticos en la costa cantábrica de la península ibérica suscita preocupación por la conservación de la biodiversidad de aves, puesto que las tendencias actuales sugieren que esta región podría convertirse en un monocultivo de especies de eucalipto australiano. Para arrojar más luz sobre los factores que promueven las diferencias en las comunidades de aves entre y dentro de las plantaciones de árboles exóticos (pino de Monterrey Pinus radiata y Eucalyptus spp.) y los bosques nativos de la zona de Urdaibai (norte de España), el objetivo del presente estudio consistió en analizar (1) la forma en que el tipo de hábitat y las características de la vegetación afectan a la riqueza de especies de aves y el asentamiento de determinadas especies durante el período de cría; (2) si algunos parámetros reproductivos (p.ej. la fecha o el tamaño de puesta) varían entre los hábitats en una especie de ave generalista (el carbonero común, Parus major); y (3) la existencia de diferencias entre hábitats por lo que hace a la abundancia de una fuente clave de alimento de la que se prevé que las aves insectívoras dependan para la cría (las orugas). Nuestros resultados confirmaron que las poblaciones de eucalipto albergan las comunidades más pobres de aves y establecieron el desarrollo del sotobosque como un factor importante para el establecimiento de las especies de páridos. Asimismo, hallamos que los árboles exóticos presentaban una abundancia de orugas menor que la de los robles nativos (Quercus robur), lo que podría contribuir a explicar las diferencias observadas entre los hábitats en cuanto a la abundancia y la riqueza de aves de esta región. No obstante, no se hallaron diferencias entre los hábitats por lo que concierne a la fecha y el tamaño de puesta para el carbonero común, lo que sugiere que los posibles costes de criar en plantaciones de árboles exóticos se producirían en etapas posteriores del periodo reproductivo (p.ej. el número de pollos emplumados), una circunstancia que habrá que seguir investigando.Plantaciones de árboles exóticos y conservación de la avifauna en el norte de la península ibérica: perspectiva de un estudio de seguimiento de cajas nido La expansión de plantaciones de árboles exóticos en la costa cantábrica de la península ibérica suscita preocupación por la conservación de la biodiversidad de aves, puesto que las tendencias actuales sugieren que esta región podría convertirse en un monocultivo de especies de eucalipto australiano. Para arrojar más luz sobre los factores que promueven las diferencias en las comunidades de aves entre y dentro de las plantaciones de árboles exóticos (pino de Monterrey Pinus radiata y Eucalyptus spp.) y los bosques nativos de la zona de Urdaibai (norte de España), el objetivo del presente estudio consistió en analizar (1) la forma en que el tipo de hábitat y las características de la vegetación afectan a la riqueza de especies de aves y el asentamiento de determinadas especies durante el período de cría; (2) si algunos parámetros reproductivos (p.ej. la fecha o el tamaño de puesta) varían entre los hábitats en una especie de ave generalista (el carbonero común, Parus major); y (3) la existencia de diferencias entre hábitats por lo que hace a la abundancia de una fuente clave de alimento de la que se prevé que las aves insectívoras dependan para la cría (las orugas). Nuestros resultados confirmaron que las poblaciones de eucalipto albergan las comunidades más pobres de aves y establecieron el desarrollo del sotobosque como un factor importante para el establecimiento de las especies de páridos. Asimismo, hallamos que los árboles exóticos presentaban una abundancia de orugas menor que la de los robles nativos (Quercus robur), lo que podría contribuir a explicar las diferencias observadas entre los hábitats en cuanto a la abundancia y la riqueza de aves de esta región. No obstante, no se hallaron diferencias entre los hábitats por lo que concierne a la fecha y el tamaño de puesta para el carbonero común, lo que sugiere que los posibles costes de criar en plantaciones de árboles exóticos se producirían en etapas posteriores del periodo reproductivo (p.ej. el número de pollos emplumados), una circunstancia que habrá que seguir investigando.The spread of exotic tree plantations on the North Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula raises concern regarding the conservation of avian biodiversity as current trends suggest this region might become a monoculture of Australian Eucalyptus species. To shed more light on the factors promoting differences in avian communities between and within exotic tree (Monterey Pine Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus spp.) plantations and native forests in the Urdaibai area (northern Spain), this study aimed to explore (1) how the type of habitat and vegetation characteristics affect bird species richness and the settlement of some particular species during the breeding period, (2) if some reproductive parameters (i.e. egg–laying date and clutch size) vary among habitats in a generalist bird species (the Great Tit Parus major), and (3) the existence of differences among habitats in the abundance of a key food resource on which some insectivorous birds are expected to rely upon for breeding (i.e. caterpillars). Our results confirmed that Eucalyptus stands house the poorest bird communities, and identified understory development as an important determinant for the establishment of titmice species. Furthermore, we found that exotic trees showed lower caterpillar abundance than native Oak trees (Quercus robur), which might contribute to explain observed differences among habitats in bird abundance and richness in this region. However, we did not find differences among habitats in egg–laying date and clutch size for the Great Tit, suggesting that the potential costs of breeding in exotic tree plantations would occur in later stages of the reproductive period (e.g. number of nestlings fledged), a circumstance that will require further research

Library of Apicomplexan Metabolic Pathways: a manually curated database for metabolic pathways of apicomplexan parasites.

The Library of Apicomplexan Metabolic Pathways (LAMP, http://www.llamp.net) is a web database that provides near complete mapping from genes to the central metabolic functions for some of the prominent intracellular parasites of the phylum Apicomplexa. This phylum includes the causative agents of malaria, toxoplasmosis and theileriosis-diseases with a huge economic and social impact. A number of apicomplexan genomes have been sequenced, but the accurate annotation of gene function remains challenging. We have adopted an approach called metabolic reconstruction, in which genes are systematically assigned to functions within pathways/networks for Toxoplasma gondii, Neospora caninum, Cryptosporidium and Theileria species, and Babesia bovis. Several functions missing from pathways have been identified, where the corresponding gene for an essential process appears to be absent from the current genome annotation. For each species, LAMP contains interactive diagrams of each pathway, hyperlinked to external resources and annotated with detailed information, including the sources of evidence used. We have also developed a section to highlight the overall metabolic capabilities of each species, such as the ability to synthesize or the dependence on the host for a particular metabolite. We expect this new database will become a valuable resource for fundamental and applied research on the Apicomplexa

The genetic landscape of the Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) after 30 years of big-game hunting in southern Spain

© 2015 The Wildlife Society. The Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) suffered a striking collapse of its populations during the first half of the 20th century due to excessive hunting. In Andalusia, southern Spain, re-colonization took place from a few relict populations through natural dispersal, and through artificial reintroductions for big-game hunting. How the population decline influenced genetic diversity, and its current distribution after the re-colonization and intensive hunting practices are unclear. We addressed these questions by analyzing nuclear microsatellite variability from 58 red deer populations distributed throughout Andalusia. Our results showed a relatively high genetic variability spatially structured into 5 clusters, corresponding to the locations of relict populations. This indicates that the red deer's current genetic background has presumably retained much of the genetic variation present in those relict populations. We also found that a substantial portion (32%) of the populations displays some degree of inbreeding. We suggest that new herds should be established using individuals from the different genetic clusters, and a careful monitoring of the breeder's genetic background to prevent further inbreeding and inadvertent hybridization. Failure to do so could lead to loss of genetic diversity and the dilution of the genetic identity of the Iberian red deer.Peer Reviewe